under complete subjection. His preparations had been made with great forethought, and on the most extensive scale. As the march to Pekin would occupy not less than six months, Timour took with him many thousand loads of corn to sow along the line of march, so that an ample provision might be secured for his victorious soldiers on their return homewards.

Otrar, however the Farab of Arabian writers-was the farthest point he reached. Attacked by fever and ague, he indulged to excess in draughts of iced water, and on the 17th February, 1405, closed his career of bloodshed and desolation. He was 69 years of age, and had reigned 35 years. He left behind him thirty-six male descendants. His body was embalmed with musk and rose water, wrapt in a linen shroud, and carried back to Samarkand in an ebony coffin. His ruined palace without the walls, and his jasper tomb within the city, are still visited with curiosity and respect by the Russians, who now lord it in the capital of the mighty Tamerlane.

Timour is described as tall of stature, broad-shouldered, and possessed of great muscular strength. He was born, it is said, with white hair, like Zal, a hero of Persian romance. His head was large, his forehead open, his complexion ruddy, and his beard ample and flowing. His character was a singular mixture of great qualities, painfully contrasted with the vices of barbarism. A dreamer of dreams and oftentimes babbling about clemency, he was utterly reckless of human life or suffering, and for the sake of gratifying the lust of conquest was ready to sacrifice thousands upon thousands of his fellow-creatures. It is true, he did not spare his own person, and was always to be found in the post of danger. He has been preferred, with little reason, to Chinghiz Khan, on the ground that the latter was a Jehan-Gheer, or World Subduer, while the former was not only a Jehan-Gheer, but a Jehan-Dar, or World Holder. As a fact, however, Timour consolidated nothing. He swept over Central

and Western Asia like a tornado, and his course was marked by towns in ashes, countries depopulated, and pyramids of human skulls. He made a wilderness and called it a conquest.

"Though one of the greatest of warriors,' says Sir John Malcolm, 'he was one of the worst of monarchs. He was able, brave, and generous; but ambitious, cruel, and oppressive.' It is related of him that in the mosque of Meshed he chose to perform his devotions at the tomb of Abou Moslem, whose power was purchased at the cost of a million lives. The bloody shadow of Abou Moslem,' exclaimed a dervish, is hovering over thy head, O thou Man of Blood!'

On the other hand, Timour was an ardent lover of truth, and hated falsehood above all things. Of a serious, and even gloomy, disposition, he was a munificent patron of letters, and was himself an author. The Mulfurzat Timoury,' or the Institutes of Timour, are at once an amusing autobiography and a code of despotic government. His knowledge of the Koran dated from his childhood, and he was able to converse fluently in the Toorkee, Persian, and Mongolian tongues. He was fond of rich apparel, and wore diamond ear-rings of great value. He usually arrayed himself in loose flowing silken robes with a tall conical hat of beaver skin, surmounted by a pear-shaped ruby, encircled with pearls and brilliants.

In this reign lived the great Bokharan mystic Saint, Khoja Baha-ood-deen, founder of the Order of Nakishbendi, three pilgrimages to whose shrine were held equivalent to one to the Kaaba. Timour's liberality to poets, physicians, and historians was only equalled by his munificence to astronomers and santons.

CHAPTER VII.

MOHAMMED BABER: ANTHONY JENKINSON.

BABER-FERGHANA-BABER'S FATHER AND UNCLE-CAPTURE OF SAMARKAND-REVERSE OF FORTUNE-A MOGHUL CUSTOM-BABER DEFEATED BY SHEIBANI BEG THE KAFIRS, EIMAUKS, AND HAZAREHS-BABER RECOVERS SAMARKAND-EXPELLED BY THE OOZBEGS-CONQUERS HINDOSTAN-THE OOZBEGS-ISMAEL THE SOUFFAVEAN-THE SHEIBANIDES -ANTHONY JENKINSON--URGHUNJ—ATTACKED BY ROBBERS-BOKHARA -THE KING-TRADE-RETURN TO MOSCOW.

To reign, rather than to govern,' remarks Gibbon, 'was the ambition of (Timour's) children and grandchildren, the enemies of each other and of the people. A fragment of the empire was upheld with some glory by Sharokh, his youngest son; but after his decease the scene was again involved in darkness and blood; and before the end of a century Transoxiana and Persia were trampled by the Uzbeks from the north, and the Turkmans of the black and white sheep.' Shah Rokh was, in fact, Timour's fourth son, and is represented by Eastern historians as a brave and successful general, a just, amiable, and unambitious prince. He reigned for 40 years over Khorassan and the immediately adjacent country, and restored many of the cities that had been destroyed by his father's barbarous soldiery. The immense empire, however, that had been overrun, rather than established, by Timour, fell to pieces at the death of that ruthless conqueror, though in India the illustrious names of Baber, Akbar, Jehan-Gheer, Shah-Jehan, and Aurungzeb appear in the roll of his descendants.

Mohammed Baber was born in Ferghana in the year 1483. On the mother's side he was descended from Chagatai and Chinghiz, and when yet barely twelve was placed on the throne of that small and mountainous principality. One of his uncles was ruler of Samarkand and Bokhara; a second governed the district of Hissar; a third was lord of Kabool and Ghuznee; while a fourth held his court at Tashkend. His seemingly powerful relatives, however, were by no means a source even of moral strength to the youthful prince. Indeed, their first thought on his father's death was to divide the little State among themselves, but it so happened that one fell sick, another lost his horses on the march, and their joint enterprise fell to the ground.

Baber himself says of Ferghana, 'This country is in the fifth climate (that is, the fifth from the equator), on the extreme boundary of the habitable world. On the east is Kashgar; on the west Samarkand; on the north there were formerly the cities of Almalig, Almatu, and Otrar, but they have been laid desolate by the Uzbeks.' The chief district in this petty kingdom was Andijan, situated on the south bank of the Syr, abounding in grain and fruit of all kinds, with a supply of melons exceeding all possible demand, and pheasants of excellent flavour. The people were Toorks, and remarkable for their beauty, but too proud to cultivate the soil for the sake of 'the top of a weed,' their irreverent expression for ears of corn. It was not, however, a healthy province, owing to the prevalence of ague in the autumnal months.

To the eastward was situated the town of Ush, with its delightful gardens of tulips, roses, and violets. 'Near the mosque, which is outside the town, there is a meadow of clover so pleasant that travellers love to take rest there, and it is a common sport of the townsfolk to carry all who fall asleep there, across the three streams. Westward lay Marghinan, celebrated

for its apricots, pomegranates, and white deer, and inhabited mostly by Sarts, an aboriginal race, 'notorious all through Mawaralnahr for blustering and love of boxing.' Turning to the south-west, stood the town of Asfera in the midst of gardens and groves of almond trees, and also peopled by Sarts. 'In a rising ground on the south-east is found the stone mirror, about 20 feet in length' (crystal or tale?). To the west of Andijan the ancient city of Kojend commanded the bend of the river Syr, which here turns in a northerly direction. In the surrounding country white deer, hares, and mountain goats were exceedingly numerous, and almonds so plentiful as to be an article of export. The climate, however, was insalubrious, and inflammation of the eye so prevalent that the very sparrows suffered from it.

Baber's father, Omar Sheikh, regarded Akshee as his capital, -a town built upon the banks of the Syr, some 36 miles from Andijan. The castle stood on the edge of a precipice high above the river. The melons grown in the suburbs were incomparable, white deer, 'the fowl of the desert,' and 'very fat' hares, were the commonest of live things. The people disputed with them of Kasan as to the beauty and climate of their respective districts, but the gardens of Kasan being all sheltered along the side of the river, it was called the mantle of five lambskins.' The revenue sufficed for the maintenance of nearly 4000 troops.

According to Baber, his father was appointed ruler of Ferghana not so much for his own merits as because he bore the same name as a chief upon whom Timour had once conferred the government. He was of low stature and wore his tunic remarkably tight, but was not particular either as to food or dress. On state occasions he donned a turban, with the end hanging down, but at ordinary times he preferred the common Moghul cap. He belonged to the Haneefah sect, and was very